


The Trouble with Bram Greenfeld

by clevernotbrilliant (clairevergreen)



Category: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda - Becky Albertalli
Genre: Coming Out, Excessive Drinking, F/M, M/M, drunk!Bram
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-20
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-11-16 09:35:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11250423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clairevergreen/pseuds/clevernotbrilliant
Summary: “Mind if I sit here?”





	The Trouble with Bram Greenfeld

When Leah started dating Garrett Laughlin, she didn’t know that meant being automatically signed up to help him set up his annual Halloween party. But there she was at 8:45 on a Saturday night, watching her boyfriend running around his house like a chicken with its head cut off.

“Do we have enough cups?” he asked, pacing back and forth between the pantry and the table where he had laid out all the drinks with a cooler shoved underneath. Leah sat on a stool, sneaking handfuls of pretzels when Garrett wasn’t looking. “And fuck, where is the alcohol?”

“On the table, babe,” she said, grinning as he glared at her for the pet name.

“No, the rest of it,” Garrett said, now wandering around the kitchen looking somewhat lost. “Bram was bringing it and he was supposed to be here by now.”

“Bram supplies your booze?” Leah asked, raising her eyebrow. “Mr. Wears Collared Shirts Under His Sweaters and Gets Straight A’s In AP English, that Bram?”

“Well, yeah,” Garrett said. “We’re pretty sure the creepy cashier at that sketchy liquor store behind Publix has a thing for him so he never gets carded.”

Leah just stared. “Well that’s…not the answer I was expecting, but okay.”

Garrett pulled another stack of cups from the top of the pantry. “He hates it, but I bribe him with Reese’s which he is not going to get since he is so goddamn la—”

A knock on the door cut him off and Leah bit her lip to keep from giggling. Garrett shot her a ‘don’t say it’ look before heading to the front of the house as she heard the door swing open. “Dude, finally,” she heard Garrett say to who she assumed was Bram. She slipped off the stool as the footsteps made their way back to the kitchen.

Garret and Bram both walked in carrying a couple of brown paper bags, Simon trailing after them. He made his way over to Leah as the two boys started pulling bottle after bottle out of the bags and adding it to the collection on the table. “I think the cashier was hitting on my boyfriend,” Simon said as Bram walked over to the freezer and started pulling packages of Reese’s out.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t worry about it,” Leah said, popping another pretzel into her mouth. Simon gave her a look, but he was cut off as the door opened again and the first of the guests started to flood into the house.

If she had expected the party to be different than last year, she was sorely disappointed. By 9:30, the house was packed and Leah once again found herself on the fringes of it. Garrett had disappeared to be a model host and she had no clue where anyone else had gone to. She sat perched on the edge of the only free couch, sipping on her Coke that she had slipped out of the fridge. She looked up as someone walked over and stood in front of her.

“Mind if I sit here?”

Leah could count on one hand the number of individual conversations she had had with Bram Greenfeld. Not that they didn’t like each other or anything, but sticking two introverted people in a room by themselves didn’t tend to end in flourishing conversations. It was much easier to let their boyfriends do the talking and insert the occasional comment.

Bram seemed to take her silence as an answer and dropped down onto the couch, somehow managing not to spill a drop of his drink. He took another sip as he looked around the room and Leah just stared at him, unsure of what she was supposed to do. “You know, I used to really hate you,” he said without warning, still not looking at him.

“I—you, what?” Leah managed to get out after almost choking on the sip of soda she had taken.

“Oh, I don’t anymore,” he said matter-of-factly, like he was just discussing the weather. “But freshman year, I couldn’t stand you.” Leah looked around the party for someone, anyone to save her from the conversation she was having. Bram seemed thoroughly oblivious and continued, “I think I was jealous that Simon spent so much time with you. I thought you two were a thing for the longest time.”

“Me and Simon?” Leah repeated.  _ I am too sober for this right now. _

“You guys were always together and I didn’t know any better until I joined the soccer team with Nick,” he said, taking another sip from his cup. “And then the whole Abby thing—”

“Bram, are you drunk?” Leah asked.

“Probably,” he said without missing a beat and in that moment, Leah completely understood what Simon saw in him.

“Okay, what was the Abby thing?” Leah asked, playing along to ignore the little twinge in her stomach at the mention of an ‘Abby thing.’

“You know, the Abby thing,” Bram said, using his hands for emphasis, and once again Leah admired his ability to not spill his drink, whatever it was. When she still looked confused, he shifted so one of his legs was resting on the couch and he could look at her. “Everyone thought the two of them were dating until the whole, um, well…”

“The Martin Asshat Debacle, yes, go on,” Leah said, taking another sip of her drink.

Bram nodded like he had just forgotten a word in a crossword instead of the thoroughly traumatic event when his boyfriend was forcibly outed to the entire school. He opened his mouth to speak, but seemed to get distracted by something across the room. He made a face and when Leah looked over, she couldn’t help but make one too.

She vaguely recognized the girl from English or something freshman year, but what was more immediately obvious was the fact that she was wrapped around whatever guy was in the chair, very enthusiastically making out. Leah tilted her head, but even then, the only way she could tell where one person ended and the other began was the two different skin colors.

“Straight people are gross,” Bram said, almost like it was a thought he didn’t mean to say out loud. Leah watched as people just parted around the couple, a few throwing them annoyed glances, but at that point, almost everyone who was drinking was wasted. Much like Bram was as he downed the rest of his drink. And whenever she would look back, the knowledge of how absolutely smashed Bram was at that moment was the only explanation for why her subconscious would let the three words come out of her mouth.

“Yeah, they are.” She managed to say them offhandedly, but as soon as she realized what she had done, her face flushed and her fingers tightened around her plastic cup, crushing it.  _ Please be too drunk to notice, please be too drunk to notice— _

“Wow, Simon was right,” Bram said as an answer and Leah was certain that her heart was about to fly out through her throat.  _ How the fuck did Simon know that I’m—  _ “He said that we shouldn’t assume everyone is straight and I guess I never really thought—”

“Stop, please stop,” Leah said, tossing her cup to the side and holding her head in her hands.

“When you think about it, there probably a lot more gay kids at our school than you would think—”

“Abraham Greenfeld, I am begging you to stop talking,” Leah pleaded, looking over at him.

“But you’re dating Garrett, so I guess that means you aren’t a lesbian, but you never know, I guess I shouldn’t—”

In a desperate attempt to get him to stop talking, Leah leaned over and put her hand over his mouth. He looked at her in confusion, but finally stopped talking. Leah sighed and picked at the edge of the cup. “If I tell you the truth, would you please shut the hell up?”

He nodded, but Leah really wasn’t sure if that meant anything. Slowly, she pulled her hand away and when he didn’t immediately start rambling again, she took a deep breath.  _ Am I actually coming out to a drunk Bram Greenfeld? _ “I-I’m…I’m bi,” she hissed through clenched teeth and she felt her cheeks immediately flush. Her stomach was twisting into knots.

“Okay,” Bram said. He tipped back his cup and downed the rest of whatever was in it before saying, “Have you told Garrett yet? You should tell him if you haven’t, he’ll be really cool about it I promise--”

“Please stop,” Leah said, much quieter this time, but Bram still seemed to register it. “I haven’t told anyone.”

Bram’s eyes got wide. “Oh, shit, I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I promise I won’t--”

He was interrupted by someone walking over and stopping in front of their couch. “Bram, there you are, I was—” Simon stopped mid-sentence and took a step back. “Are you drunk?”

“I might be,” he said, giving Simon a sickeningly sweet smile.

Simon rolled his eyes as he grabbed his boyfriend by the arm and attempted to pull him up. “Okay, let’s go get you some water.”

“Actually, whatever was in this would be great,” Bram said, looking into the empty cup he still had in his hands.

Simon ignored him and turned to Leah. “Thanks for babysitting, I guess,” he joked.

“Yeah,” she said, only looking at Bram, “no problem.”

Simon and Bram started to walk away and just like that, it was like she hadn’t just spilled her deepest darkest secret to her best friend’s inebriated boyfriend. Except she had. And he was extremely drunk.

“Hey,” Garrett said, sinking down in Bram’s recently vacated seat. He kissed her cheek and put his arm on the couch behind her. “You okay?”

Leah glanced over to where Bram was leaning all over Simon as they made their way over to where she was sure Abby and Nick were sitting. “Yeah,” she said, turning back and giving him a smile. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

 

***

 

Leah yawned as she opened Garrett’s fridge the next morning and pulled out the milk that had been shoved to the back. She twisted off the cap and drowned her bowl of Frosted Flakes before putting the milk away.

She had been jittery for the rest of the party and when Garrett had suggested she stay over instead of trying to drive home, it didn’t take much for her to agree. Simon and Bram had also crashed somewhere, but she there was no part of her that wanted to go seek them out (for more reasons than one). 

The creaking of the stairs alerted her to someone coming down, but assuming it was Garrett, she continued to read the word search on the back of the cereal box. She had just lifted the spoon to her mouth when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her from behind.

She jumped and the spoon clattered into the bowl, splashing milk everywhere. The person let go and she turned around to see Simon standing behind her, beaming. “What the fuck, Simon, you almost gave me a heart attack.”

“Sorry,” he said, but his smile told a very different story. 

Leah raised her eyebrow as she fished her spoon out of her bowl and licked the milk off. Simon continued to stare at her. “Can I help you?” she asked, taking a bite of her cereal. He shook his head, but he had that look on his face like he was waiting to blurt something out. She was about to take another bite when it clicked in her mind.

“He fucking told you.”

Simon’s eyes went wide and he started shaking his head. “No! I mean, well, technically, it just kind of came out--”

“Of fucking course he told you,” she said, staring at her suddenly unappetizing bowl of soggy Frosted Flakes.

“He was really drunk, Leah, I don’t think he even realized what he was doing--”

“He could’ve told anyone,” she cut in and wiped at her eyes. “Fuck, what if he told Garrett. Jesus, Simon, I am going to kill him--”

“I’d prefer if you didn’t,” Simon joked and Leah finally turned to look at him. “Look, he didn’t tell anyone because I was with him all night.” Leah crossed her arms and looked down at her feet. “And he’s so very incredibly sorry. You know how I know? Because he is too hungover to even lift his head off the pillow, but he still managed to tell me that he needed to go apologize to you right now.” Despite herself, Leah smiled slightly. Simon had literally found himself a real life ray of sunshine for a boyfriend. 

A literal ray of sunshine who had somehow managed to drag his hungover ass down the stairs and into the kitchen without either one of them noticing. “Leah, I am so sorry,” Bram said, wincing at the bright lights. “I didn’t mean to tell Simon, it just came out.” He winced and Leah wasn’t sure if it was the hangover or the poor wording. “It just slipped out before I could stop it. I swear I didn’t tell Garrett, I would never do that on purpose--”

Deep down, Leah knew she still wanted to be mad at him. But looking at him standing there next to Simon, she couldn’t stay mad at him. “It’s okay, Bram,” she said. 

“Not really,” he said, moving over to the counter where Simon was halfway through making a pot of coffee. “But if you say so.”

Leah twirled her spoon around the bowl. She felt a strange buzzing in her stomach. Here she was, standing in a kitchen with the two people in the world who knew she was bi and all she could think about was the boy asleep upstairs who had no idea about any of what had happened. She sighed and dumped the cereal in the sink, heading out of the kitchen. 

“I was being serious, though,” Bram said, like he could read her mind. She stopped at the entrance to the front hall and turned back to him. “If you decide to tell him, he’ll be really cool about it.” 

Leah nodded and duck her head as she walked around the corner, trailing her hand across the wall. Bram’s words swirled around in her head as she went up the stairs. Her heart was pounding as she tried to decide exactly what she was going to do next. The short hallway didn’t offer much time for her to collect herself and all too soon she was standing in front of Garrett’s bedroom. She paused, her mind swimming with everything that happened in the past day. She took a deep breath and twisted the knob. 

Garrett was still exactly where she had left him, twisted up in the covers and sound asleep. She quietly made her way over to the bed and crawled into it. The tug of the covers seemed to wake up him up and he blinked a few times before looking over at her. “Hey,” she said, curling closer to Garrett as he turned to her. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, Julie is the actual savior of this fic and it would not have ended up like this if it wasn't for her <3


End file.
